Posts Tagged ‘rural revitalization’
What’s Killing Rural Canada?
In this sobering Maclean’s article, Aaron Hutchins examines the challenges facing many rural Canadian towns. Crime, opioid abuse, boarded-up businesses and fleeing populations are destroying the country’s heartland. Can small-town life be saved? By Aaron Hutchins Kathy Jones is pretty confident there are 100 people living in Jansen, Sask., today. Maybe it’s 101.Either way,…
Read MoreCanal Flats Is Electric!
Canal Flats fell on hard times. When our communities’ circumstances change, we need to find new ways to prosper. Canal Flats was a lumber town; it’s primary employer was a sawmill. When that mill closed in November of 2015 it threw 75 people out of work and decimated the town’s economy. Many people, grown children,…
Read MoreHere to Stay
In this CBC podcast, host Manusha Janakiram looks at how Canada’s smallest, often remote communities are not just striving to survive — but to thrive!
Read MoreSeniors’ Housing
Slocan seniors’ housing hosts grand opening Sept. 27 Years of hard work, stamina and emotion have gone into the creation and construction of Slocan City Suites, the new seniors’ housing that celebrates its grand opening on Thursday, Sept. 27 in the Village of Slocan. “We’ll call it a ‘soft’ grand opening,” says Slocan Valley Seniors’…
Read MoreEscape the City Winners Announced!
It’s like a law of physics — you know, for every action an equal reaction. As our major centres grow ever larger and more congested, attracting young people from rural areas with the promise of jobs and, well, glitter and glamour, an increasing number of youngish city folk are starting to look longingly at BC’s…
Read MoreSaving Rural Communities
Saving rural communities — what are the obstacles and the opportunities facing rural towns and regions today? In this thought-provoking video produced by NET and Harvest Public Media, Brian Depew, Executive Director, Center for Rural Affairs, Maxine Moul, former Nebraska director for Rural Development, US Department of Agriculture, and Caleb Pollard, Ord, Nebraska entrepreneur, discuss…
Read MoreRural Schools — Successes & Challenges
Rural schools — it’s difficult to imagine a thriving rural community without one. Yet across the rural landscape, declining populations led by an outflow of young people to the cities threaten the existence of many small schools, and with them the towns and villages they are based in. Is this steady loss of rural schools…
Read MoreEscape the City!
Escape the City — that’s a concept that’s likely to become increasingly common as our major centres become increasing crowded — and expensive. Life in a major urban area isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. Sky-high housing costs, seemingly endless traffic woes, crime, pollution, noise, and stress — lots of stress —…
Read MoreRosebud, AB Shows the Arts Can Transform a Small Town
Rosebud, AB is tiny (fewer than 100 citizens) but mighty — at least when it comes to using the arts as an effective means of economic transformation. Every year upwards of 40,000 patrons flock to Rosebud, to eat a fabulous meal and enjoy fully professional theatre, in the middle of “prairie nowhere”! The Rosebud story…
Read MoreLocal Manufacturing Big in Rural America
Local manufacturing matters in rural America, employing more than 3.5 million workers. As rural America’s second largest sector, manufacturing employs 14% of rural civilian employees and produces 15% of total rural US earnings – that exceeds the retail sector, and is more than double agriculture’s presence in the US rural economy. After an era of…
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